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Where most comics harsh on newspapers, 'Ollie & Quentin' makes a saving play
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Take that, newspaper haters! (JSOnline.com)
We've seen countless instances of comic-strip creators hurling invective at the newspaper companies that publish them. Newspapers keep shrinking comic-strip space; they're becoming less and less relevant to today's readers; and they can't keep enough people coming in to make launching new strips financially worthwhile.
That's why it's quite shocking to see, in today's episode of "Ollie & Quentin," a somewhat passionate defense of the broadsheet.
Yes, as Oddball Bird & Worm Owner saunters through the door, segull Ollie and lugworm Quentin pounce upon him, eager to sample the day's news as only the local daily can provide (of course, if these two creatures were Internet-savvy, they might not be so eager). Lo and behold, Oddball Bird & Worm Owner(yes, I know that's not his real name) doesn't want a paper - in the horrendous weather they're experiencing, it'd just get soaking wet, and what's so wrong with getting the paper online (for one thing, it's free).
Ollie & Quentin are having none of it. In a somewhat rare display of out-and-out meanness, they shove the guy's laptop into his soaking wet clothes, an apparent protest of the ongoing media trends that threaten to consign newspapers - and the funnies that often populate them - to history's dust heap.
These actions move counter to so many other anti-newspaper incidents we've seen bubbling up in the recent past. Brenda Starr has been fired from the Daily Flash. Spider-Man's J. Jonah Jameson is abandoning his beloved Daily Bugle in order to run for mayor. Why, we've seen the creators of everything from"Agnes" to "Red and Rover" take a pot-shot at the medium (sometimes subtly) - and we're hard-pressed to tell them to cut it out. "Ollie & Quentin" scribe Piers Baker, you've got some guts!
For more info: To reach the Comics Examiner, email me at bristei@aol.com
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